<p>Their info session consisted of the admissions officer reading a boring script and repeating over and over that the most important thing was choosing rigorous classes. Well duh, but the entire room was filled with seniors who have chosen every high school class they will ever have. The tour group was about 30 and they had about 8 tour guides. I thought, “Great! We’ll really get to talk to a student.” Nope. The students took off at a trot in a clump at the front of the group and didn’t interact with the “tourees” at all. Then the tour guide got to the brickyard and told us how the library (and mispronounced library, too) had Wii and Nintendo and one of the buildings had been misdesigned - and they are famous for their design school :-). Not at all impressive. You pay for parking and your own lunch - if you had time for any - the campus is so huge that you don’t have time to break between the info and tour.</p>
<p>Best: Hampden-Sydney</p>
<p>Extremely personal admissions office. Dear son has received multiple personal, handwritten letters from staff and alumni about different aspects of the college. The day we visited, my son was treated as an honored guest. Everyone was incredibly friendly. The admissions folks had set up for him to meet with professors and attend a class - the professors were the most engaging and passionate we met the entire trip - including some of the top schools in the country. They gave an extensive tour including classrooms, hangouts, dorm rooms, everywhere. They escorted us to the cafeteria and paid for lunch. They made you feel wanted! Since then, ds has received follow up letters and even a phone call. Their Christmas card was very classy. H-S’s admissions office makes everyone else look pitiful.</p>
<p>Best Advice: Don’t rely on admissions</p>
<p>The most useful thing we did at any school was to arrange to talk with professors and folks from the campus orgs our son was interested in.</p>
<p>when I went to Cornell for the weekend, the admissions staff was excellent. They were always making sure that we were fine and granting all our wishes. The information sessions were OUTSTANDING and fun. During a bowling party, the admissions staff was dancing with us!!lol(good times)
Cornell gives the feeling that one is wanted in contrast to other ivys.</p>
<p>Worst info session: Columbia. It didn’t help that we were in a huge auditorium in Low Memorial Library (not Columbia’s fault), but the ad com could have stopped telling us about how we weren’t going to get admitted. Like many of you, I just felt that was the worst way to present the school. Most of us have done our research- we KNOW this is a tough school to get into. Maybe the adcom should have thought a little bit before he turned students off from the school and made students think that C is a “cold,” “unfriendly” place. The tour guide, though, was terrific, and balanced out the adcom.</p>
<p>Yale had a recent grad lead the info session, and while he was great, I felt he was inexperienced.</p>
<p>Most productive info session: University of Chicago. The adcom (who is now an undergrad advisor) went in-depth about the uncommon app and what they, as adcoms, look for from students, who Chicago is right for and who it is not right for. Info session was conducted around a table in a smallish room. The adcom was describing the students whose files she read and whom she wanted to come… it sounded like she was in constant contact with some of her applicants… the admissions process just seemed so personalized. The school was towards at the top of my list before this meeting, but it cemented itself after that info session.</p>
<p>I think all the campus tours I have taken over the years have been pretty good. They have all been upbeat, friendly, willing to answer questions, and my opinion of the school was generally the same after the visit as it was before the visit (except Haverford, which I decided was too small and stifling of a campus setup to consider). </p>
<p>The only one that made the deal were the University of Chicago tour guides. The first time I visited the school with my older brother back in '01, I hung onto every word the tour guide said and can still remember large chunks of his tour. I visited the school twice after that before actually applying-- the other tour guides weren’t perfect, but they struck me as people I’d be good friends with (while the other tour guides stuck me as nice people I probably wouldn’t be friends with).</p>
<p>The stupidest slip-up I remember actually came from the Harvard tour guide: “At Harvard, we’re not competitive, unlike MIT, where everybody’s competitive.” Sounds like the epic discussions we have on CC right there!</p>
<p>UVA - loved it but being from va makes me a little biased.</p>
<p>UNC - beautiful campus but the crowd and the lines to sign in or even park on one of the tiny side streets was not fun. Very long walk and at times very boring even though it was pretty. info session was 1/2 funny and informative and 1/2 enough already. full of nc students so oos questions were few and far between</p>
<p>bc- amazing but long. area where you check in is tiny and everyone had to stand and wait for the room to empty for the next session. session was funny and interesting but a little bit too much cheerleader for bc and less info on getting in.</p>
<p>cornell- good </p>
<p>wake- haven’t been yet </p>
<p>ga tech - best of all. felt very welcome and comfortable. lots of laughing and guide was smart and nice. </p>
<p>columbia - decided against it just after a week visit to nyc. the location turned me off (not nyc but the area columbia was in…bleak)</p>
<p>It was several years ago but I thought the absolute best campus tour guide was at Virginia Tech. UCLA was pretty good although the latter’s admission’s office was pretty much inaccessible. You lined up in front of cages to ask people questions.</p>
<p>So-so tours were at UNC and USC (in Los Angeles). The latter had the absolute best admissions people who took a personal interest in my son. He wound up going there.</p>
<p>Disappointing was FSU (it was cold and wet and the campus was empty, but we had to come for a required competitive interview) and very disappointing was VCU. The one program we wanted to see was last on the lengthy tour, and the door to it was locked, and the Assistant Dean leading the tour knew little about it. VCU went off our list as a possible safety.</p>
<p>Emory was the best I’ve experienced … by far</p>
<p>They’ve responded to my communications promptly and sincerely … definately one of the friendliest admissions offices i’ve experienced yet.</p>
<p>They info session was very helpful as well … they were straightforward and ranked the importance of various admission criteria in order on the chalkboard (I’ve never seen any admissions office at a selective school do this)</p>
<p>MIT is far and away the best of the schools I’ve applied to. I mean, they called me at work to let me know that I got into MIT early because I was working at the time decisions came online.</p>
<p>How can you beat that?</p>
<p>Also, I agree with a poster who said earlier that Notre Dame just seemed pretentious- I was the only person in my information session, and the admissions counselor gave me a 5 minute lecture on how only the best and brightest should apply early after I said I was doing EA. He didn’t even ask my stats! He could have saved himself that five minutes. After that, we had a tour guide and I’m pretty sure I knew more about the campus and culture than either of the students we had. Granted, I’m a 4th generation legacy, but they GO THERE.</p>
<p>By far the best that I have dealt with was Boston University. They are always nice, welcoming, and professional in both Boston and hometown info sessions. They also respond to emails quickly and were great sorting out an app problem over the phone.</p>
<p>This is ALL relative, so it’s really just flat out stupid to judge a school by it’s info session or tour guide of the day. Maybe one day you would have recieved a fabulous tour guide but the next day not. Maybe the info session’s rep’s dog died the night before – WHATEVER. The adcom doesn’t reflect (entirely) upon the character of the school. So they didn’t have chairs? Maybe they were out for cleaning! Get some PERSPECTIVE. </p>
<p>And yeah, elite schools don’t have to clammer for USNWR rankings so they don’t have to fight tooth and nail for applicants and praise.</p>
<p>McGill: usual tour with enthusiastic (US) student. What surprised me was that this was followed by a Q & A with an admissions officer. I did not expect this from such a large school with an impersonal reputation. Our group was relatively small, so we had plenty of opportunity to ask ??s.</p>
<p>^My D had the opposite experience at McGill, tour led by a girl chewing gum, sloppily dressed, uninformed, unenthusistic. D asked about the Science bldgs. to which the reply was “over there someplace”. Tour turned her off the school. Really unfortunate that such a negative impression can be gained by one experience, though in general that school wouldn’t have been a fit anyway.</p>
<p>You’re right, the bow is not the package. But the bow is an important part.</p>
<p>When it comes down to it, a lot of colleges are similar to each other, and once you start touring, they all begin to look like one another. What helps you distinguish one from the other? That the tour guide smiled at you. That you were able to treat yourself to coffee before the tour. That the office did a lot of follow-up with you.</p>
<p>A family friend ripped Chicago off the list completely after visiting in the summer, because one dean spoke for too long and one student made a stupid slip-up that was probably intended to be humorous. (Q: “What makes you better than Northwestern?” A: “We’re smarter.”) It’s upsetting that those two particulars turned her off from the school completely. I mean, how much are those two turn-offs going to contribute to her entire four years as an undergrad? Would she ever meet that administrator again, or speak to that student again?</p>
<p>I think some tour guides should start a list of things that parents and students should not expect on tours. One of those items would be questions about other schools comparable to the school one is visiting-- it puts tour guides in an extremely awkward situation. Tour guides and students at school X are not experts on school Y!</p>
<p>Reading some of this, I regret commenting to a girl on a tour at NU that I passed by that the tour guide had mis-stated the founding year of the school. Ah well (It bugged me, because he bothered pointing out that one of the buildings was built for the centenial, and that it was shaped like a 1 as a result, but didn’t put 2 and 2 together and figure out that the “1” was for 1851, not 1855.</p>
<p>Michigan’s admissions staff has been great; my regional rep was especially helpful, as was the local alumni section in answering my questions about scholarships. Really gives meaning to the motto “Leaders and Best!”</p>
<p>Wisconsin’s admissions staff was also extremely helpful; I have been somewhat disappointed in the University of Oregon (extremely disorganized) and Boston College. UNC and UVA could have been better, given the quality of the institution. </p>
<p>UC schools also earned high marks, given the quantity of applications they receive.</p>
<p>I agree that it is not always wise to base your college decision on one visit and an individual’s behavior. However, when you are down to the wire and you know you can’[t apply to all 15 schools on your list, you begin cutting based on something…and your gut feelings and first impressions after a visit seems to be a legitimate way to go. I agree that admissions should seriously take this into consideration. They spend so much money on promotional mailings, but seem to spend a lot less time on the “package” they present to visitors.</p>
<p>Best: UNC Chapel Hill. Despite the fact that they can afford to be very selective, I thought they went out of their way to make everyone feel welcome. The info session on the campus tour was a bit long-winded, but they were thorough on addressing questions. Very friendly.</p>
<p>Worst: NC State. While we loved our interactions with the faculty, who were very open and friendly, the info sessions were overcrowded and the tour guide bossy and cavalier towards the students (current and prospective).</p>
(It bugged me, because he bothered pointing out that one of the buildings was built for the centenial, and that it was shaped like a 1 as a result, but didn’t put 2 and 2 together and figure out that the “1” was for 1851, not 1855.</p>